Ani's 2002 release is a live, double disc CD that offers up 2 hours of music, including 3 previously unrecorded songs and 20 more compositions from every phase of her career, all recorded with the beloved 6-piece band she toured with from 2000-2002. Take a listen to two of these tracks: »Welcome To:« and »Self Evident.«

Like her previous album Revelling/Reckoning, this tidy little package is really two records in one. Disc One, subtitled »Stray Cats,« is what Ani calls »a feral collection of set list standards and a few anomalies,« by which she means (among other things) versions of songs you won't hear this way anywhere else. Disc Two, »Girls Singing Night,« is structured more like one of the shows from her last tours with the band, from walk-on music all the way to the encore, even though the individual tracks come from all over the place.

Here's what the Little Folksinger herself has to say about the project: »I gave up very quickly on the notion of finding perfect versions of any of these songs; there's no such thing on tape, let alone in my mind. The performances are 'flawed,' certainly, but my mission became simply to find technically passable tapes from nights I remember enjoying, listen to the songs I was interested in representing, and then ask myself the question, 'Is the spirit here?'« For more of Ani's comments about the record, click here.

You can be sure there's spirit aplenty in the live recordings Ani has chosen to release. Given her recent return to touring solo, So Much Shouting functions as a very personal tribute to a particularly memorable era in her ever-changing career.

»In re-arranged old songs and a few new ones, Ani reflects on love, media, guns, family, stardom and, in a poem with music called 'Self Evident,' the aftermath of 9/11. She's troubled and disgusted and wounded and contentious, and her timing keeps listeners riveted to every shifting thought.«
- THE NEW YORK TIMES